Emergent Research

EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

Authors

The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

Videos

Disclosure Policy

Emergent Research works with corporate, government and non-profit clients. When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it.
If we mention a product or service that we received for free or other considerations, we will note it.

Assistant Edge

February 10, 2012

Freelancing and the 3 Laws of Future Employment

New Geography's The Three Laws of Future Employment looks at a mix of issues around future employment with a focus on whether or not we need more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates.

The part of the article I'm most intrigued by are the 3 laws of future employment. These are:

Law #1: People will get jobs doing things that computers can’t do.

Law #2: A global market place will result in lower pay and fewer opportunities for many careers. (But also in cheaper and better products and a higher standard of living for American consumers.)

Law #3: Professional people will more likely be freelancers and less likely to have a steady job.

There appears to be broad agreement with these 3 laws. The Marginal Revolution blog, for example, argues against some of the article but states "We are in basic agreement about the laws of future employment."

I too am in agreement with the laws.

Related to freelancing, the interesting - and unanswered - question is how extensive will freelancing be?

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I guess there's nothing wromg of being a freelancer as long as you have a good online presence that would work. You are the boss of your own time, and you can generate more money depending on your marketing strategies.

I agree in law number 3 of 3 Laws of Future Employment. Professional people will more likely be freelancers and less likely to have a steady job. As for me, I want to work at my own time, place and whenever I want. Freelancing gives all these options plus I think that I am well paid through freelancing that working in an office.